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After PSG's stunning transformation since the turn of the year, where are we heading next? Every team from the Premier League to League Two are still trying to learn how to play a sometimes comedic version of tippy-tappy Pep-ball, which now looks to be dead in the water. Enrique-ball isn't easy, you need super committed players who also have good technical ability. Maybe we should just go back to hoofing the ball up the pitch and hoping for the best? Answers on a postcard.
That old cliche still holds true: football is a simple game.Originally Posted by Wales-Bales
PSG showed you need energy, positional awareness, an ability to pass accurately (consistently), and a cool head to put the ball in the net when the opportunity arises.
Throughput Saturday’s game, I marvelled at how simple yet effective their play was.
Maybe this is the key: keep it simple.
I’ve seen clips of managers in the changing room, explaining what they want from the players.
Despite my maths/logic based degree they had me baffled - let alone an 18 year old who skipped academia to focus on football.
Boxes my arse.
It will be interesting to see if Pep can rebuild and adapt, and what will happen at Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle, and Man U, and how well Bellamys Wales do next season.
But if you put peps Barcelona circa 2010 back into circulation today they still win a lot and well. Or even some of his better man city squads.
It's players in a system that suits. When you have Cardiff city insisting on playing out from the back, it's fair to say it isn't going to work out.
Even Pep has tweaked his systems a fair bit depending on where and who he is managing.
Good thread
I actually don't think Peps 2010 Barca would be effective against 2025 PSG style play
Of course few teams play like PSG but if all teams were, 2010 Barca would really struggle as they would be closed down so quickly and prevented from getting the ball into the final 3rd.
A lower league club who can adapt this model will push through the leagues. Sadly won't be us.
It looks simple but the PSG players were constantly switching positions during the game. For example, their right-back was often seen playing in the centre-forward position, and he even showed up on the left-wing! And the thing is all the players were doing it, so the man-marking system goes out the window. It should be noted that he only brought this in during his second season, probably due to the complexity. Another example is the way that PSG were rapidly closing down the Inter Keeper and defenders and made it difficult for them to play out from the back, which often resulted in them losing possession. They make it look easy, but it takes a lot of work to get to that level.
I think it all goes back to the Dutch era of Total Football and it has evolved over the years. Enrique's 2015 Barcelona had already bettered Pep's version, and now he's taken it to another level again. It won't be long before somebody figures out a way to counteract the current system though, and then it will start all over again.
Systems evolve with the players you have. The top managers constantly evolve; it is the copiers that suffer.
Klopp quietly cheated the formation geeks by pretending Trent AA was a right back when in reality he was a midfielder when they had the ball. Pep also put midfielders at full backs, inverting them into midfield to overload the middle of the park. We thought pushing NG into the middle was the same thing!!
The good opposition manager identifies that strength as a weakness and plays genuine wingers that cause a mismatch against the pretend fullbacks. It constantly evolves, Pep went to 4 centre halfs, copying as Mad Mick
Pepball is so clever and intricate, but he is probably in Version 15 of it. Let's be honest, he hasn't just had world-class players; he has had generational talents. Watching an ex-championship bruiser centre forward, a centre half, and a youth team coach trying to imitate it has been a car crash.
It was great watching PSG pull Inter around to get one of their front player in space in the inside channel and just watch them run to goal. We couldn't copy that on any level and it would be embarrassing to try it.
Players aren’t being categorised into one position anymore, they have to be multi skilled like the Dutch initiated. PSG showed this as stated above. In isolation Trent Alexander Arnold isn’t an exceptional full back, right winger or central midfielder, but he is a very good combination of all three. If David Beckham was starting his career today where would he play? The 4-2-3-1 systems used in the Premier league today wouldn’t work that well for him.
It's all opinions isn't it. I think 2010 Barca thrived on teams trying to close them down but being just so good on the ball that it didn't matter and as a result they better exploited the gaps left behind. Ignoring xavi, inietsa and messi, even Busquets as a holding mid was incredible at taking the ball in almost no space and not losing it.
Off the ball the early pep teams in particular were also very good at winning the ball back.
They wouldn't win everything all the time, they didn't even back then but I just don't see them struggling as such at all.
Barcelona 2010 vs PSG 2025
Vinnie's already told our lot
"shoot from own half!"
And he's told the keeper to score more goals.
That’s how I remember it, there used to be an unwritten rule at Barcelona that they had to win the ball back within five seconds of losing it. PSG were great on Saturday and to win on the grounds of the top two in the Premier League marks them out as a team worthy of consideration as something special, but let’s see what happens in the next two years before making claims as to how they’d turn over the Barcelona of 15 years ago.
You’re going to press Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Pedro and David Villa? Good luck with that
Agree with this. If you are so aggressive in your closing down, if you lose a few one v one battles, so much space opens up.
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